


run for those hills, babe

by heybernia



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Multi, it's actually babysitting fic with a baby but yo what ev
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 14:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16788670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heybernia/pseuds/heybernia
Summary: "That’s a baby,” Phil says. It’s not Jer’s baby, it’s his billet parents' baby, and Phil knew that they had a baby, but something about having it—she’s not an it because she’s a her—staring at him with those slow blinking eyes is leaving him feeling kind of shocked.





	run for those hills, babe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [love_stella](https://archiveofourown.org/users/love_stella/gifts).



> this is for ash who once said she wanted husk3s kid fic i'm not sure this completely counts but i tired. happy birthday ash i hope you like this <3
> 
> so here is [jer holding a baby](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DtOvIpLXoAEixPX.jpg), here is [alex holding a baby](https://www.instagram.com/p/q5ElBdC_eN/), here is [phil holding a baby](https://www.instagram.com/p/zgMDItj90R/) and another of [phil holding a baby.](https://www.instagram.com/p/BkQe_0MlIvP/)
> 
> title from the tom rosenthal song of the same name

Phil rings the bell at Jer’s billet and waits for Jer to come to the door. Alex is standing beside him, swaying into him a little. His cheeks are red from the cold and he’s trying to tuck his chin down into his collar. Phil gives Alex’s hand a squeeze, it’s jammed in beside Phil’s hand in Phil’s pocket, and he can see the top half of Alex’s face turn smiley.

A silhouette appears through the window in the door and unlocks the door. The door opens, revealing Jer and his ruffled curls all swooping over to one side, lips curling up into a smile that may look like a smirk but it isn’t. Phil knows how to tell the difference, the eye crinkles are the key, and Phil’s initial thoughts are about kissing the crinkles of the corner of Jer’s mouth or letting Alex go first when there’s a sudden sound, loud and indecipherable.

A pair of eyes blink up at Phil from Jer’s arms. Phil blinks back.

“That’s a baby,” Phil says. A baby with dark wisps of hair, dressed from head to toe in soft shades of purple, wearing a woolly jumper and a pair of stripy pink socks. It’s not Jer’s baby, it’s his billet parents' baby, and Phil knew that they had a baby, but something about having it—she’s not an it because she’s a her—staring at him with those slow blinking eyes is leaving him feeling kind of shocked.

“Yes Phil,” Jer says, this time with a smirk. “It’s good to see you too.” Jer leans up to give Phil a kiss on a cheek, making sure to manoeuvre the baby to keep her safe as he moves to give Alex a kiss on his cheekbone too. The baby makes a noise both times Jer’s lips touch their skin.

Alex slips his hand out of Phil’s pocket, laughing loudly, and he always looks like he’s shining when he’s smiling, like the gentlest sort of sunbeam or just one Phil doesn’t mind blinding himself for but there’s something extra delighted about it now.

It’s obvious what it’s about before they even get inside. Phil looks up from taking his shoes off and sees Alex giving the baby his finger which she can just about wrap her little hand around. The inside of Phil’s chest is an unsettled place, swooping up and down like the waves.

“Strong grip you’ve got there,” Alex says, voice light and soft. “Okay, ouch ouuuuch, you've got some sharp nails too. You’re a tough cookie, aren’t you?”

In return, the baby lets out a few babbles and makes Alex’s face melt as if it could get even softer.

“Her name is Lucie, right?” Alex checks, still focusing mostly on her.

Jer’s face is soft too and they’re both matching the sensation behind Phil’s ribs. “Yeah,” he says. “She’s a little troublemaker.”

“That’s your influence,” Alex says. “Don’t listen to Jer, he’s always causing trouble.”

She seems to recognise Jer’s name because she starts to babble even more, letting out an impressive variety of low and high pitch noises.

“Nice try, but Lucie loves me. I’m her number one fav,” Jer says, basically bragging. Kids do like Jer, they gravitate towards him on the ice and off it. Phil doesn’t know if he would go as far as to say Jer was a kid whisperer, but he’s definitely a kid comedian at the very least. If anyone is a kid whisperer, it’s probably Alex. If children like Jer, then children love Alex. Probably has a lot to do with how he always looks engaged and joyful when talking to children no matter their age or the surroundings.

Jer turns to face Phil, and Alex turns to him too, and Phil ends up blushing because what else is he meant to do when his two favourite boys in the world are smiling softly at him. He was happy to stay back and watch them, he didn't really feel like getting involved, and they understand that Phil feels like sometime. They always seem to know the right time to pull Phil in and let him stay out. 

“You’ve met Lucie before, Phil,” Jer says, shifting the baby over into his other arm. Alex is nodding beside him. “At the parade, do you remember? You were the pretty much the only person who wasn't hungover.”

Phil does, kind of. He remembers Jer holding a little bundle of pink clothing, smiling with his sunglasses on, and Alex smiling in sunglasses too and the filled streets that came out to see them and getting to spend that night with them before they each had to go off in different directions. Back to their houses where they grew up which weren’t their only homes anymore.

“Yeah, I do,” Phil says.

“Good,” Jer says. “She’s a lot bigger now than she was then.”

Jer finally starts to move them inside into the living room where Lucie’s toys are laid across the carpet. It’s a huge mess and Phil is being careful with every step he takes in case he stands on something.

“They trusted you with the baby,” Alex says, not judging at all. Mostly just a curious question.

Jer shrugs it off like it’s no big deal. “It’s only been for a few hours and Lucie’s napped for most of it. Her mom will probably be back in half-an-hour, maybe a little bit more,” he says, bouncing the baby a little the whole time, practised and confident.

“You should have said, we could have waited or gone back to my billet or something,” Phil says, watching Jer nudge the baby further up on his hip. Last season, while they were still figuring things out between the three of them and trying to map each other’s mouths and skins, they spent time in everyone’s billet, but this season, once Phil was back from Philadelphia, they had mostly been spending time at his.

“Nah, it’s not like we can't still hang out,” Jer says. “Like I said, it won’t be too long before her mom comes back and we can start to watch an episode or two of something, as long as you don’t mind little Lucie here.”

Jer is looking at Phil expectantly. Phil doesn’t mind, he’s pretty sure he doesn’t mind, he just hasn’t ever spent a lot of time with babies in general. He’s one of the youngest kids in his family and his extended family isn’t that big to begin with so Phil’s never really had the chance to spend time with one and he’s certainly never been trusted to look after one.

It leaves a thick feeling coating his throat. Nerves probably, different than the ones he gets on the ice or watching from the stand.

“It doesn’t bother me,” Alex says, breaking up the feeling trapped in Phil’s throat. “I’m just happy to spend time with the two of you.”

Phil understands. They’ll be at the Super Series soon, all three of them, and then Phil and Jer will be off to World Juniors training camp. Most nights, Phil thinks about how much he wishes that Alex could come with them.

“Same,” Phil says. “I don’t mind because I get to be with you two.”

“Same and same,” Jer says. “I love you both. I’ll go get us drinks.”

Jer bends down and puts Lucie down gently on a play-mat in the middle of the carpet, and then leaves to go get through to the kitchen, leaves Phil feeling the beaming bursts inside at Jer’s words. Lucie doesn’t stay on it for long. She pulls herself up and starts to crawl in one direction, determined and picking up speed.

“She’s pretty fast,” Alex says from where he’s perched on the arm of the couch. “Faster than you two probably.”

“You’re probably right, Forts,” Phil says, too busy watching Lucie sit up and grab a soft panda plush and try to shove it into her mouth to argue.

“Hey, what do yous want?” Jer yells from the kitchen.

Alex seems to be caught halfway between rolling his eyes and laughing again. He ends up doing both as he stands up and keeps his balance, just about.

“You wanting a soda?” Alex asks Phil.

“Yeah, thanks,” Phil says. He can still see Lucie in the corner of his eye.

Alex is smiling, a small one but it’s still enough to make his face light up. “I’ll go tell Jer and make sure he doesn’t break any glasses trying to carry them all through,” Alex says, and Phil means to say that he’ll go through and help Jer but Alex steps up on his tip toes and gives Phil a peck on the lips, lingers enough to leave a phantom sensation before he takes off through to the kitchen.

Phil wants to stare into the abyss although he is aware that he can’t because of the little bundle on the floor. He looks down at said little bundle and finds her a few feet away from him, panda plush thrown away. She stares at Phil, head thrown back. Then she lifts her arms up and lets out a couple of blah noises in a row.

“Really,” Phil says. Lucie makes another demanding sort of noise and tries to reach up with her arms even more.

Phil lets out a sigh but he really, really doesn’t want to make the baby cry because he was left alone with her for two minutes so Phil bends all the way down, puts his hands under her arms and lifts her all of the way back up again, shuffles a little until they're both comfortable. 

He doesn’t have to support her head although that doesn’t stop him from feeling like he’s somehow holding her wrong. Lucie seems happier now so Phil probably isn’t doing anything wrong. She’s twisting around as much as she can and Phil makes sure to move around in a small circle to let her see all of the living room. 

“That’s one of the good things about being tall, you get to see everything,” Phil tells her and Lucie makes a long gurgling sound.

Phil can’t go over how tiny she is. How little she weighs in Phil’s arms and how small all of her features are. The whole of her hand could fit so easily into the palm of Phil’s hand. She's absolutely adorable and her little jumper and socks are too.

She stops looking around and goes back to staring at him for a few seconds. That is before she catches sight of Phil’s chain and even if nothing on her face changes, Phil isn’t surprised at all when she quickly grabs it in her chubby little hand.

“Uh-uh,” Phil says, gently trying to pry her hand off his chain. He succeeds but Phil gets a slow blink in response and she goes for the chain again, a pout on her face as she gets really close to putting it into her mouth.

“No, it’s not for chewing,” Phil says, shaking his head and pulling it away from her again. That doesn’t deter her though, she is very determined to get that chain into her mouth and smacks Phil’s collarbone trying to get it. “Lucie. Lucie, no.” It's all very endearing to Phil.

“She likes shiny things.”

Phil does not come close to dropping the baby. He does not and he only jumps a little bit.

“I figured that,” Phil says, turns around to face Jer who has two cups in his hands. Beside him, Alex has a cup and a bowl of chips in the other, audibly chewing a few already.

“She likes you,” Jer says, placing both of the glasses on the table beside the couch.

“She probably thinks I’m you,” Phil says.

“That sounds like a compliment to me,” Jer says, teasing a little.

“Definitely sounds like a compliment. It’s easy to mistake two handsome boys with dark curls, I think,” Alex says, nonchalant. Phil’s face is turning hot again and he can see the tips of Jer’s ears and nose start to turn red as well.

Something is swelling up inside Phil, like that thick feeling that was coating his throat before except it's now everywhere in his body. Inside Phil’s chest, pretty much exactly below where Lucie smacked his skin, there’s this feeling of want. Want for the future. Phil can imagine it clearly now, the three of them together in one place, in a home together, maybe with a few more members of their own family. Phil knew he wanted Jer and Alex and perhaps he knew he could want more, but he never realised just how much until now. He wants to love them forever and he thinks he wants to love their own too.

“What’s up?” Alex asks, reaching out to Phil.

“Does she need a diaper change?” Jer asks, screwing his nose and pulling his phone out of his pocket.

“No, I was just thinking,” Phil says. “You want to hold her?”

Alex nods and so Phil smiles down at Lucie as he hands her over to Alex. Understandably, his heart explodes when Alex gently boops Lucie’s nose and makes her start to giggle.

“Lucie’s mom is coming back in twenty minutes.” Jer announces, smiling up from his phone. “Do you want to watch an episode of The Office in the meantime?”

Phil lets out a groan and Jer’s already arguing about the legitimacy of The Office as the greatest TV show ever made, and Alex is talking to Lucie and the two of them are laughing in the background and Phil wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Whenever Phil thought about his future when he was a kid, he imagined being someplace with someone who loved him. It hasn’t changed much since then, now he just imagines being with two people who love him and maybe one or two more he could love too.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed reading this sickly sweet fic <3
> 
> i'm on twitter [@attababehisch](https://twitter.com/attababehisch)


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